JAMIE FRANCIS/THE OREGONIANSteven T. Wax, U.S. Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon, Kayse Jama, a Somali community member and Saba Ahmed, a friend of Mohamed Osman Mohamud's family, leave the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Monday after the hearing for Mohamud.

BY BRYAN DENSONAND JULIE SULLIVAN

Mohamed Osman Mohamud's defense team suggested Monday that undercover FBI operatives may have entrapped their 19-year-old client, grooming him for a foiled bomb plot that prosecutors timed for maximum media exposure.

Mohamud's lawyers joined him in Portland's U.S. District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to accusations that he attempted to ignite a bomb next to thousands of Christmas revelers crowded into Pioneer Courthouse Square for Friday's annual holiday-tree lighting.

"The question we'll be looking into is the question of entrapment," said Steven T. Wax, Oregon's federal public defender, after Mohamud's first court appearance. "Keep in mind we are at the very beginning of a very long process. The defense investigation is just getting under way."

Mohamud's lawyers questioned some of the government's tactics as it spent months building a case against their client. The teen was indicted Monday on a single charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Mohamud is accused of plotting to ignite what he thought was a van-load of explosives at the downtown square. But the weapon was a dummy device secretly prepared by federal agents and presented to him by undercover FBI operatives who had spent months posing as his terrorist associates.

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. dismissed accusations that the FBI pushed Mohamud into a crime he otherwise would not have committed.

"I am confident that there is no entrapment here, and no entrapment claim will be found to be successful," he said at a news conference in Washington, D.C. Holder described the six-month investigation and sting "part of a forward-leaning way in which the Justice Department, the FBI, our law enforcement partners at the state and local level are trying to find people who are bound and determined to harm Americans and American interests around the world."

The legal crossing of swords came Monday afternoon, a few hours after The Oregonian reported on unrelated accusations against Mohamud. The newspaper obtained a Benton County court document that showed Mohamud had been accused -- but not prosecuted -- in a date rape last year at Oregon State University.

A crowd of people, including frustrated journalists and friends of the Mohamud family, were turned away from Mohamud's arraignment in Portland because the courtroom was too small to handle them. Their numbers included four young men who said they had known Mohamud since junior high or earlier. The men, who declined to give their names because their parents did not know they had gone downtown for the hearing, said they were "shocked" to hear of their friend's arrest.

"I honestly believe without the FBI involved, none of this would have ever happened," one of the young men said.

Mohamud, they said, had been shopping with friends at Washington Square Mall early on Friday, the day of his arrest. They described him as a college kid who smoked, drank, played video games and wanted to marry. They dismissed the notion that he was a religious fanatic, saying they never observed him at the mosques in Corvallis or Portland. And they scoffed at claims he hated white people, saying he ran with "frat boys."

Mohamud shuffled into the courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta at 1:45 p.m. under the watchful eye of U.S. marshals. The teen wore a light-blue button down shirt and ankle chains into a court brimming with security seldom seen at the daily magistrate's arraignment.

He made no noticeable gesture toward a gallery choked with friends and family, including his father, mother and sister. The teen-ager smiled at his lawyers and shook their hands.

The magistrate appointed Stephen R. Sady, Wax's chief deputy federal defender, as Mohamud's primary lawyer. Then the judge gave the teen a standard recitation of his rights and asked if he understood them. The young man answered softly.

"Yes, your honor."

Sady then launched into a series of complaints about the government's handling of the case against Mohamud, saying it showed the potential for entrapment and involved sophisticated undercover FBI operatives who were "basically grooming" his client.

The lawyer accused government prosecutors of releasing a 36–page FBI criminal complaint affidavit to news media on Friday night that served as a "press release" for allegations against his client. And he pointed out that the FBI had botched a crucial recording of a conversation between Mohamud and undercover bureau employees in the early stages of their investigation

Sady agreed to file a formal request to the court today asking for prosecutors to save all of the audio and video recordings in its possession and the devices used to collect them.

Acosta set Feb. 1 as the tentative start of a 15-day trial in the attempted bombing case.

Mohamud's defense team stood on the front steps of the federal courthouse after Monday's hearing, where Wax told a mob of reporters and photographers that they intend to look into the actions of FBI employees to see whether they overstepped their boundaries and entrapped their client.

Wax said the criminal affidavit reveals that FBI operatives spent thousands of dollars on Mohamud, suggested key actions for him to take, told him specific bomb components to buy and were instrumental in orchestrating the very crime for which his client was charged.

"One of the issues that will be coming up in this case involves whether, and how, he was directed by those government agents," Wax said. "Precisely who was saying what to whom under what circumstance, what the meaning of it was, will be revealed as the case unfolds."

Wax said Mohamud's defense team had questions about the timing of his arrest, why the government waited so long to take him into custody, and what impact that delay had on his ability to get a fair trial.

He declined to answer questions about Mohamud's mood or allegations that he was told women and children would die in any attack. He said Sady and one of the investigators from their office spent the weekend with Mohamed, getting to know him and his family.

Members of Mohamud's family declined to appear or speak Monday.

A family friend, Lewis & Clark Law School student Saba Ahmed, said she knew many facts in the case not yet made public, and she blasted the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice. She blamed the government for inciting violence, pointing out that the mosque that Mohamed is said to have attended in Corvallis was torched on Saturday in possible retaliation.

"This is very irresponsible behavior because now the Muslim community is the one suffering the consequences," she said. "And we will take very serious action -- politically and legally -- against the government for this."

Ahmed reminded reporters that individuals charged with crimes are presumed innocent, a thought echoed by Wax on the courthouse steps.

"It is critical for people to keep an open mind," he said, "and not to prejudge those matters put out there as allegations."